Internet advocates OpenMedia took aim today at Canada’s ‘Big Three’ telecoms companies after they jacked up phone bills and cited Canada’s weak dollar as their reason.
Cell plan prices are set to increase across Canada for Big Three customers, except for Quebec, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, where local providers such as SaskTel offer consumers an alternative to nationwide giants Bell, Telus, and Rogers.
“Here’s a question: When the headlines read ‘Canadian dollar bounces back,’ will the Big Three lower prices back to where they were?” asked OpenMedia's campaigns director Josh Tabish, whose organization has long campaigned for online privacy rights and affordable internet pricing.
While that question remains open, Rogers defended their phone pricing adjustments as reflecting both current market conditions and ongoing network and service investments.
OpenMedia once more called on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to allow a wide range of mobile virtual network operator providers to set up shop and sell services, breaking the Big Three’s dominance.
Dipping dollar means rising living costs
But rising cellphone costs are only one symptom of a deeper problem affecting Canadian consumers as the loonie continues to fall against the American dollar. At time of writing, one Canadian dollar is worth just 69 US cents and the two currencies were last at parity in 2013.
As a result grocery prices are rising as well as cellphone bills, as many vegetables and fruits on sale in Canadian supermarkets are imported from the United States.
A weekend shopping trip to an Ottawa Loblaws revealed yellow onions selling for $1.79 per lb, navel oranges at 99 cents each, broccoli priced at $3.99 per bunch, cauliflower at $4.99 per bunch, and fresh tomatoes at $3.99 per lb.
The situation is no better in Atlantic Canada: at a Halifax Sobeys, onions were selling for $2.99 per lb, a far cry from 2013 when shoppers could buy an entire kilo for $1.88. A kilo of oranges cost $3.99, a modest increase from $3.15 in 2013. One head of cauliflower was $6.99, up from $3 per head one year ago according to CTV. Broccoli sold for $3.99 per bunch, whereas in 2013 in went for $1 for two pieces. Fresh tomatoes were going for $4.49 per lb. Four years ago, a Canada-wide tomato glut saw many producers either donating or throwing out thousands of dollars worth of crops.
While gas is cheaper, the falling loonie has been blamed for fuel prices dropping by only one-third, whereas the price of Brent crude oil has plunged by more than two-thirds over the last year and a half to only US$28.89 per barrel.
Who gains from the pain?
While the falling loonie has prompted fears of currency instability, the weak dollar is not all bad news. Canadian manufacturers, who have in recent years been battered by recession, stand to benefit from higher profits as the loonie drops.
Americans can also enjoy cheaper cross-border trips and shopping north of the border, giving tourism a boost.
“It is a good time for Americans to buy things here,” economist Peter Dungan at the University of Toronto told National Observer.
But Canadians visiting the United States stand to lose as cross-border shopping will become more expensive, while ‘snow birds’ heading south for winter can expect to pay more in condo fees and other living expenses.
With files from Charles Mandel.
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